The Kirklin Clinic is the only entity in the state selected by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) as part of the National Diabetes Prevention Program. The program offers adults 18 and older considered most at risk for type 2 diabetes – those with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 24 — an evidence-based program that can help prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes through lifestyle changes. Those who may be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes are encouraged to visit uabmedicine.org/PreventDiabetes and sign up to be part of the AADE National Diabetes Prevention Program at UAB. The website offers a video about the program and an online quiz to help visitors determine their risk.

In addition to age and BMI requirements, those who have had a blood test within the past year indicating prediabetes are eligible. Also, women with a history of gestational diabetes may be eligible, as are Asian men and women with a BMI greater than 22.

A new drug hailed as a game-changer in the cystic fibrosis community is improving life expectancies for patients — and unplanned pregnancies among women who believed CF made them infertile. Nursing Assistant Professor Sigrid Ladores, Ph.D., is undertaking a study to provide a roadmap for more comprehensive care for their reproductive health. For Ladores, this is personal.

UAB was first in Alabama, among the top 75 universities in the nation and No. 200 in the world, according to the 2016 Best Global Universities ranked by US News and World Report. Microbiology, immunology and clinical medicine programs ranked in the top 50.

Six new exam rooms were added and additional staff have been hired to expedite care and reduce wait times at UAB Medicine Urgent Care, located at 125 20th St. South, Suite 103. Hours are 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Twenty-one UAB physicians are included in Newsweek’s list of more than 2,600 leading cancer specialists in America. “We know that our physicians are some of the best in the world, but now the world knows it too,” said Edward Partridge, director of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

UAB has established the third multidisciplinary comprehensive clinic in the world for transverse myelitis, which can cause loss of motor function or paralysis. It will provide a place each patient can see all the medical professionals who have a role in their care at one time and in one place.

UAB physicians are assessing ways to improve coordination between women's health providers to deliver more comprehensive care for those undergoing surgery for endometrial cancer. New surgical protocols that combine reconstruction could offer a longtime improvement in quality of life, researchers say.

UAB’s new Personalized Medicine Institute will use a $7 million gift from the Hugh Kaul Foundation to advance this emerging discipline, which uses an individual’s own genetic profile to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing has received a $1.5 million Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to open a new nurse-managed, population-based, transitional care clinic for heart-failure patients recently discharged from UAB Hospital.